Somnus Pingere.

I go through phases of intense dreaming where I will experience as many as three separate dreams in a single night. It can last days or weeks, but often disappears without warning. Ever since I was a child I was always a fantastic dreamer, able to remember clear narratives, colours, smells and sounds. I wasn't a lucid dreamer in the sense that I controlled my actions, but instead seemed to nudge my dream-self along in what I felt (and I mean that in a totally organic and uncontrolled way) were the best directions.

There were several characters and events in my dreams that would repeat themselves. I can't honestly say I've had an entire recurring dream, but sometimes it does feel like I have. When I was younger, I was often confronted by a cartoon penguin not unlike the Linux mascot. Specifically I recall a dream where I was driving down the road and off in the distance to my right was a large factory. It was grey and uninviting against the winter backdrop, but I felt compelled to investigate. I pulled my car over to the side of the road, hopped out and slid into the ditch. There at the bottom was the penguin who pointed down a narrow tunnel carved in the snow. I pulled myself through and had miraculously covered several miles and was now at the foot of the factory. I don't recall the rest.

As far as recurring events I specifically recall a large number of my dreams ending with a rolling cloud of fire coming over the horizon, engulfing everything it past over. It wasn't a scary ending, and I was never afraid of the pyroclasm heading my way. Instead it was a signal that it was time to wake up. Two dreams with such an ending come to mind. The first started with me here at home, in my basement. The outside world was bathed in a warm, orange light like the sun was made of gold and amber. Everyone was standing outside on their lawns looking up at the sky. My father called us inside as we listened to the radio. A nondescript cataclysm was heading our way and people were warned to take shelter in their basements. We have a fruit cellar at the foot of our stairs that is all cement, so naturally we hid in there. There was preserves and cans of food to last us through whatever had befallen the Earth. Once inside my family disappeared and I immediately knew of their new location. They were in the auditorium of the nearby high school. I walked out to my lawn and donned my Rocketeer helmet and took off into the sky. I landed at the school just in time to see the rolling wall of fire crest the horizon. I decided there was nothing I could do so I took off my helmet and just as the fire ensconced me I woke up.

Secondly there was a dream where I was working at Pier 1, and we were just closing up. I heard the air raid sirens go off (which is not an unusual sound, Baden uses an old air raid siren at the fire station and would sound it to call in the firefighters). I walked out of the store and saw a halo of twinkling lights that circled the Earth. They were perfectly spaced out, almost like Earth's very own ring system. The streets and surrounding buildings had all been sacked and burned and I knew I had to get to those lights if I wanted to live. I ran across the street to the Mark's Work Warehouse where the sidewalk had been blown away and I was able to see a series of tunnels with lanterns beneath the earth. I ran behind the nearby Cineplex Odeon and hopped a fence. I was tackled by someone else making their way towards the lights in the sky and after a brief scuffle I took off again, heading for a nearby tool shed. I walked into the tool shed and closed the door behind me. In front of me was a sleek glass and steel rocket that had a seat and handles on it, like a rocket powered jet ski. I grabbed on and it automatically covered me in a glass bubble and launched me off into the sky. I was able to look down and across the entire planet as I took off, seeing several other "escape pods" launching up with me, and the cities and countries were aflame in riots and explosions. As I neared the mysterious light in the sky I became aware that it was in fact a second stage to my escape pod. It was a larger vessel that the escape pod latched into and laid me out on my back. A voice came over a speaker telling me that the Earth was about to be destroyed and all survivors will be placed into stasis and fired off in a multitude of directions. The intent was that one ship needed to land on a hospitable world so that man kind would be able to go on living. Just before the sleeping gas weighed down my eyelids, I looked down at the planet one last time as it was engulfed in a wall of fire and I woke up.

Most of my dreams are like the one above, and I generally have a great memory for them. It became something of a breakfast ritual for me to regale my dad with the adventures I had been on in my dreams. As I got older they remained as colourful, but less frequent.

As I continue to mature I can only hypothesize what dreams may yet come.